This technology disclosed in this application relates to securing a circuit board to a receiving connector socket. The circuit board can be a printed circuit board having a plurality of electrical contacts formed along one side edge of the circuit board. The edge of the circuit board is inserted into a receiving slot of a connector socket. Electrical contacts in the slot of the connector socket connect to corresponding ones of the electrical contacts on the edge of the circuit board. Such an arrangement is commonly used to mount a circuit board with various electrical components onto a computer motherboard of a PC or server.
When a circuit board is mounted in the slot of a receiving connector socket, and the assembly is subjected to shock, vibration or other accelerative forces, the circuit board can become partially or fully dislodged from the connector socket. Also, even if the circuit board does not become fully or partially dislodged, the accelerative forces can disrupt the electrical connections between the electrical contacts on the edge of the circuit board and the corresponding electrical contacts in the receiving slot of the connector socket. Even when physical contact between the corresponding electrical contacts is not broken, movement of the circuit board with respect to the connector socket may cause an electrical resistance of the connection to vary over time. And this change in electrical resistance alone could cause problems for signals traversing the connection. As a result of these factors, when such an assembly is subjected to significant shock and vibration, it is common for an electrical computing system using this arrangement to report faults or errors, or completely stop responding.
It would be desirable to mount the circuit board in the connector socket in such a way that shock, vibration and other accelerative forces are less able to disrupt the electrical connections between electrical contacts on the circuit board and corresponding electrical contact in the receiving slot of the connector socket.